IV. Iucundum mea vita &c
IV.
Iucundum mea vita &c [1]
Dearest! did I hear thee say
That our love should ever last?
Oh! on this auspicious day
Be thy vows sincerely past.
Purely from thy inmost soul,5
May the soothing promise flow;
May our loves united roll,
Nor divided current know.
If thine heart is wholly mine,
Oh! may fate our wishes crown!10
All our future hours entwine,
Pillowed on affection's down.
Notes
[1] EDITOR'S NOTE: "Dearest! did I hear thee say" does not appear in Psyche, with Other Poems or Mary (or Collected Poems and Journals) and is undated in Verses. It presents a verse translation of Catullus's 6-line Carmina poem 109 (“You promise to me, my life, that this love of ours shall be happy and last forever between us,” Francis Cornish translation):
Iucundum, mea vita, mihi proponis amorem
hunc nostrum inter nos
perpetuumque fore.
di magni, facite ut vere promittere possit
atque id sincere dicat et ex animo,
ut liceat nobis tota
perducere vita5
aeternum hoc sanctae foedus amicitiae.
